As many parents are new to the “racing” portion of having a child enrolled at GBSA, your old ship mate, “The Barnacle” is going to post some information and helpful hints regarding attending regattas. This may be old news, for the old salts, but attending regattas can be a confusing experience if you are new to it. There will be more information coming, but we wanted to weigh anchor and set sail with some very basic info.
Over the summer there are 3 regattas plus Junior Race Week for; Opti Green, Opti Racer, Laser and 420 classes. There are other events we will cover at a later date, but I wanted to go over these first. These events are administered by Narragansett Bay Yachting Association, NBYA (yes! your child gets to tell their teachers and classmates in the fall they spent their summer YACHTING!) and each event is hosted by an individual yacht club.
In this episode of, ”How to Have a Stress Free Regatta” we are going to cover your entry point to getting a good start on sorting out the needed paperwork to enter your child in these regattas:
If you go to this link:
http://nbya.org/shop/
The two sections you want to visit are “Junior Regatta Registration” and “Dues and Membership” (why dues and membership you say? well you cant go YACHTING if your not a member of the YACHTING Association of course!)
If you click on the “Junior Regatta Registration” link you will see an online shopping cart type experience where you can select the regattas you wish to enter, and pay for them online.
If you click on the “Dues and Membership” link you will see a link for “NBYA Junior Dues” where you can register your child with NBYA. Your child must be registered with NBYA to enter the regattas.
Done you think? No! you still need to fill out the “Waiver of Liability” form (what if your child should ram some guys Hinckley with their Opti and plunder their grey poupon? NBYA wants no part of being keel hauled for that!) and the “Consent to Treat” form. Here is the link for those: http://www.nbya.org/junior_sailing/forms/NBYAWaive_ConsentWeb090315.pdf
Oh, theres one more thing you must register and pay for, (yes everyone gets a cut, and people think pirates are greedy!) If you are going to attend Junior Race Week you will need to be a member of US Sailing, you cannot participate in Junior Race Week if you are not a member of US Sailing. To do that go here: http://membership.ussailing.org/
Helpfull Tips! (yes “The Barnacle” said he would give more than just scuttlebutt here!)
# 1 Yes, you can register for the regattas day of the event, BUT do not fall into this trap! You don’t need to be worrying about getting your child registered when your already stressing out about the fact you just discovered they lost their wind indicator last week and forgot to tell you, or that their life vest was last seen somewhere in the GBSA parking lot and your in Bristol!
# 2 After you have registered your child on-line for the regatta and with NBYA well in advance of these events, make copies of the e-mail receipts you will get and bring them with you just in case theres some sort of snafu.
# 3 As far as The Barnacle knows, this is the schedule for the three regattas and Race Week;
Opti; July 8 – Ida Lewis, July 27 – EGYC, August 10 – Bristol
420; June 27 – Saunderstown, July 15 – Barrington, August 3 – Bristol
Laser; June 27 – Saunderstown, July 13 – Wickford, August 10 – Sakonnet
NBYA Junior Race Week; August 13 through 15
Heres a good link for some more info, downloads if you want to register and pay by mail, and some important cut off dates; http://nbya.org/blog/?page_id=170
Well thats it for this weeks class, stay tuned as there will be plenty more coming. BUT the first step to having a stress free regatta is to register well in advance so get off your arse and do it!
The Barnacle
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